- Flip Saunders on the Pistons’ tendency to “flip the switch” come playoff time:
“I didn’t even know about the switch until I got here and was told that they had one. Last night, I asked them to turn the switch on at 7:00, and that seemed to work.”
- From A. Sherrod Blakely:
Since the 2003-2004 championship season, the Pistons are 11-3 in games in which they can eliminate an opponent. In those 11 wins, the average margin of victory has been by 12.5 points.
And of the three losses, two came during their second-round series last season against Chicago, a series the Pistons wound up winning four games to two.
That third loss, of course, was Game 7 of the 2005 Finals. Here’s another arbitrary record: 6-8. That’s Detroit’s record in the playoffs since going up 3-0 against the Bulls last year.
I’m not trying to be a pessimist pointing that out, but pretending 2004 and 2005 are still relevant to what this team is capable of doing now is probably part of the reason the Pistons have been so hot and cold in the playoffs the past couple of years.
- There will be basketball at the Palace on Saturday; whether it’s Game 7 or Game 1 remains to be seen.
- If Flip is eventually fired this year, the rumor mill suggests he will have suitors.
- The Celtics took care of business against the Hawks.
- I’d have my blogger card stripped from me if I didn’t mention the Costas Now brouhaha in which civility was thrown out the window and Will Leitch was ambushed. Here’s Leitch’s response, as well as reaction from around the blogosphere.
- We’re number three! We’re number three! (To be honest, I have some quibbles with those rankings: any metric that puts DBB above TrueHoop is automatically suspect, as is completely omitting FanHouse and Ball Don’t Lie. Still honored, just saying.
- Last but not least, don’t lend money to Jerry Stackhouse.
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I have no problems with Michael Curry being the next Pistons coach. Soooooo looooooong Flip!!
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080501/SPORTS03/80501011/1051
That “Costas Now” segment was pretty brutal. The obvious retort for the Deadspin blogger would have been to have some comments on hand from any internet article posted by a “respectable” media outlet. They are just as thoughtless and venomous as any comments you will find on blogs.
Costas is such a ridiculous windbag. For him to call anything ‘glib’ or ‘condescending’ is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever heard. I’m not familiar with Bissinger really, but I’m gonna have to put him in the same boat based on this segment. It’s such an obvious case of the establishment railing against the future that it makes me wince. The only voice anyone ever hears negatively towards blogging is that of the old guard media, and never the consumers of media. Similar to any news delivery form, there are good and bad examples. The public is going to make a choice as to how they get their news based on how relevant and compelling it is. Since newspapers obviously can’t compete in terms of relevancy, they’re either going to have to write much more compelling stories or go the way of the steam engine.
Bissinger, portrait of a man drowning.
He should be on O’Reilly, ranting about the new Hip-Hap music and how it’s destroying the minds of our youth.
He prefers being a man of privilege and access, and seeing others survive without it enrages him.
he’s riding a dying dinosaur called “old media” and realizes he’s woefully out of touch.
the ironic thing is that it won’t be sites like deadspin or basketbawful that kill old media. it’ll be idiots like Bissinger, unable to see the forest for the trees and still clinging to the era where he was not only relevant but revered.
i missed the greatest irony of all.
i hope to god someone takes Costas’ great hair to task for what was obviously a sensationalist attack masquerading as a journalistic panel discussion. this makes “Hardball” look like the McLaughlin group. Costas should be ashamed of himself. Not only getting Bissinger on, who had no intention of having an intellectual discussion, but GIBVING HIM THE LAST WORD!?!?!
everything about this makes the bile rise up in my throat.
Mr. Costas, you were never a journalist. you are a pleasent face, a great head of hair and a soothing voice, perfect for television commentary. but this proves you know nothing about journalistic integrity, even if you think it gives you the right to judge other people’s knowledge of it.
hehe, i meant “Crossfire” not Hardball.
I was trying to figure out why DBB spiked so much in the traffic rankings (Congrats!) and then remembered the 300+ comment threads in the losses to Philly. That probably supercharged your page views something fierce as everybody but Phil Saunders was rushing to share what was wrong with the team. I didn’t see the CelticsBlog threads after the Atlanta losses but I’ll bet they enjoyed a similar effect. I’ve heard that pain generates twice as strong a response as pleasure which explains the massive number of comments when the Pistons turn the ball over 27 million times while displaying all the enthusiasm of zombies at a salad bar.
Blogs are an amoral communication tool used by human beings. It makes as much sense to say ‘bloggers’ are _____ as to say ‘telephoners’ are _____. It’s such a massive generalization it’s ridiculous. The interactions I see all the time from this blog with other teams like Golden State and Boston and Need4Sheed and Philly are far more civil and community oriented then anything you’ll see on ESPN Sportscenter where they make every rivalry out to be a bloodsport between fans.
For all of the negatives you encounter online the huge positive is that the internet is interactive and people are transformed from passive consumers of information into members of communities that self generate content the moment they add their 2c to any discussion on any topic. That’s A LOT healthier for society then sitting on your arse and suckling at the cathode ray nipple 4 hours a day.
An NYU professor named Clay Shirky writes about the ‘cognitive surplus’ that came from increase productivity from technology that was basically wasted for 30 years of inertia by everybody watching TV. He says while the internet may be incredibily coarse and stupid at times it’s still a far healthier choice to discuss YOUR OWN interests online then to choose one of a few narrow options of TV programs to discuss each day. Having the common culture of discussing who shot JR everyday isn’t all that productive. Far better to split that energy up into a thousand smaller units and have people debate what they are passionate about instead of something that just happens to be pushed in front of everybody because choices are limited.
how long has michael curry been an asst? seems a short period of time for everyone to be knocking on his door. especially since we have a couple assts with actual HEAD coaching experience (porter, cowens.)
and that switch line is the funniest thing i’ve ever heard flip say. phil saunders must be very proud of his son/dad/uncle/nephew/cousin.
Israelipiston: If you’re reading…tonight at 3am on sport5 channel they are putting the game LIVE.
Finally a game i’m going to watch. they had better fu**in play well
“I didn’t even know about the switch until I got here and was told that they had one. Last night, I asked them to turn the switch on at 7:00, and that seemed to work.”
Great quote by Flip. This guys got it all: inteligence, savy, charm, humour. Bless his heart.
@phil: you should get a picture of Flip tattooed to the back of your eyelids. That would be awesome.
thanks ohad
GO Pistons
live in Israel
@Phil “Flip” Saunders:
Good luck to you and the team tonight. Do whatever you did to get the guys playing well in Game 5 (if you did anything at all. Which I doubt). If you need to use that same line again, go for it.
Oh, and please put Amir in for a few minutes, just to shut us up.
Free Phil Saunders!
@Matt - That Buzz guy says you’re dedicated to cruelty. Weird.
phil saunders, you slay me. we gotta take your act on the road. i will be your manager. all i ask is a 10% cut and a promise that your dad won’t f*** up our chances to make the nba finals.
After a careful analysis taking into account all of the expert opinion of others it seems that the Pistons best rotation which will give them the best chance to win the Title is
Starters
———–
Tay
C-Bill
Sheed
Maxiell
Rip
Bench
———–
Afflalo
Dyess
Stuckey
Johnson
DNP
——–
Hunter
Ratliff
Herrmann
Dixon
Hayes
Samb
Records in close-out games have to be the most overrated stat EVER. If you’ve won 3 games in a playoff series, you’re likely the better team. And if you’re the better team, you’re MOST LIKELY to win the game. Hence the Pistons 11-3 record.
I want 2 minutes for Herrmann, so he can hit a three in garbage time, like always.
While I must say that Mr. Bissinger is quite a jerk… I would never say to Lindsey Hunter that he shouldn’t be playing… but he shouldn’t. I don’t see how it can be so offensive to athletes to read negative things about them by no names with a bad nickname. I mean Jeter got booed in Yankee stadium… There was that guy who made himself famous heckling Jordan. I can only imagine what people yell at lebron when they’re drunk at a stones game. Why would you care so much about a blog? As for the private life thing… I agree that people shouldnt snoop in peoples private life but really I think it’s societies problem that we have false conceptions of people. The president is an infallible agent of the lord almighty. He doesnt get diahrrea or BJ’s from his wife. Melo got a DUI after one of his worst performances of the season… that wasnt bloggers. Id rather have lienart who might have been drinking during the offseason or off days. Although I think he is a little to old for bongs and or kegstands. But thats his perogative. Either way the only reason I came to this site and started “bloging” is because the traditional news media wasnt giving me all the information I needed. Sometimes people say stupid things, I know I do it a lot, but even if you took away all the user comments from this site I still think it would blow away the coverage of any newspaper that covers the pistons. All the traditional sites I go to have “blogs” by sportswriters now and have user “boards” where people can write whatever they want. I come here because there are LESS morons than at the traditional media. I feel like I actually have a voice… albiet a small one.
I hope Phil Saunders is just a poser or someone with the same last name but no relation. I don’t personally hate your relative Flip. The strong comments I make are an emotional reaction to my perception of his incompetence on the job. If you don’t like the papperazzi don’t be a movie star or move to bolivia. If you do know flip please tell him some of the constructive critism that we have leveled against him. We both want the same things… for him to succed. To do that I just think he needs to learn to make better adhustments, diagram better plays, manage his rotation better, and most importantly of all man up, demand respect, earn respect, and fire up your team.
OK just realized phil is a jokester and im a little slow.
Nah dude, it’s actually Flip.
Tell him to play Amir.
Wow, Bissinger (the jerk, hope I got his name right), is so passionate in his ‘crusade’ that he makes a fool of himself in front of the cameras dropping F-bombs because… he does not like blog sites? Specifically ones about sports?
So high and mighty - impressive. Really, ignorance of that caliber is impressive. I could not stomach watching the whole clip, just trying to analyze that sad mentality made my head hurt.